Lizzie's Jello

A fun moment in our busy day. Lizzie fulfills her role of providing us with these. :) Enjoy

Cub Scouts III

We are on our 3rd round of cub scouts and all the fun that it brings. :) As you can see, scouts is a great avenue for my shy and reserved son to discover his true self. (Wink! Wink!) Actually, Carter is so lucky to have such a great group of boys his age and great leaders who enjoy these boys and their energy. Here, he was trying to pin on the Mother's Bobcat pin. I am wearing a nice thick fleece, which turned out to be very difficult for him. Poor guy.

Both of our smiles lessen. Time is ticking...

This is where my patience fails me and it's "I'll just do it." Luckily, Carter's still smile returns.

I love scouts and am thrilled to have Carter join such a great organization. I also love the tradition of fathers working on projects with their boys. Whew! Go Steve!

Braxton's Birthday

Braxton is 12 years old.

Yes, it happened. In 1998, I could never imagine my cute little baby growing up into a handsome young man. It felt like he and his brothers were going to be little forever. Where does the time go?

Braxton had a good birthday. The kids on his team at Crone Middle School all sang to him. He got a few presents: an alarm clock with IPOD capabilities, since he is now the proud owner of one--thanks, Santa; a warm sleeping bag from Grandma and Grandpa Alleman in preparation for the Klondike Campout at the end of the month; money from Grandpa and Grandma Bird; Khet Laser game for fun; and a new suit and tie for our new aaronic priesthood holder. :) Another highlight was getting to choose the meals for the day. Braxton is a crack-up when it comes to food. It is extremely important and a daily topic. He got chocolate-chip waffles and hot chocolate for breakfast, pizza for his lunch (yes, I cooked it at 6:30am because that's what a good mom does, right?), and Chicken Divan with Caesar Salad for dinner. The best part of the day was when he got to participate in the combined young mens/young womens activity. They played glow in the dark volleyball. The kids paired up and had a towel in between then to catch and release the glowing ball flying everywhere. There were balloons and cake from a baby shower also. He thought it was good enough to be for his birthday.

The next evening, Steve and I took him to his favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, for a huge plate of spaghetti and meatballs with salad and breadsticks. Braxton was in heaven. The waiters came out with a cake and sang to him, which he thought was pretty cool, too.

Sunday, Braxton was ordained a deacon and received the preisthood from his father. Uncle Ryan and Aunt Julene came to participate. Shane Jacobs, Kirk Halliday, and Steve Lines were also in the circle. It was a proud moment--yes, I'm teary-eyed as I'm writing this.

I am so proud of the young man that Braxton has become. He is responsible, caring, obedient, full of integrity, and as hard of a worker as you can find. I just love this kid. I love him more with each passing year as I get to know who Braxton really is. It's a great adventure.

Happy Birthday, Bubba!

Bass Pro Shops for Santa!

This year a friend of mine suggested I take the kids to Bass Pro Shops to see Santa. I am so glad that I did! They had a great time! First of all, this was our first time in the store, and it's "ginormous." The kids loved looking at the deer on the wall and the staged stuffed animals staged in scenes around the store. They had RC monster trucks that the kids could play with, free fudge samples in 3 different flavors, and shooting games.


This store also had toys we had never seen that would make my friends from Elko proud.
This Santa was the best I had EVER seen. He was so sweet! Lizzie still did not want anything to do with him, but she let Braxton hold her for a picture (which was also free, by the way).

Carter, above, loved the hunting games.

Sweet Braxton was trying to help teach Emma how to be Annie Oakley.

The girls loved writing notes to Santa and mailing them in the special mailbox.

This was one of the stuffed reindeer. Emma was brave enough to touch him, but preferred to just look and get her picture taken.

We very rarely take the kids out to restaurants or even fast food places. So, when I threw out the idea of going to get a milkshake, they were as excited about that as they were about Santa! I had a buy one get one free coupon for a white chocolate peppermint milkshake. The kids had seen the ad earlier and drooled over it. I broke down and decided to take them. They had a blast! I got major points for that little splurge. I do have to mention that Lizzie was the only one who complained about having to share.

A Christmas memory I'd rather forget...

On Saturday, December 19th, my kids wanted to start their Christmas vacation off right. We slept in, hung out in our pjs, and then they went outside to play in the snow. After a half an hour, the girls came in wanting to some hot chocolate, which finished off my #10 can. I grabbed a new one and was going to get some heating up in my cocomotion. I tried using my new can opener that opens on the top claiming to leave no sharp edges. It wouldn't cut through the can for more than 1 or 2 turns. After reclamping it and failing 3 times, I decided to grab my old, trustworthy can opener and get the job done. I put the plastic cover on the can and enjoyed the sound and smell of hot chocolate mixing and warming on my counter. Well, the kids finished it off, so I went to make one more batch. As I pulled the plastic lid up, a portion of the outer rim that had been cut by the new can-opener lifted up as well, but cut right through my right hand index finger tip.

The picture below shows the portion of the can that wanted a piece of me. You may also notice the lovely guard and mean set of gauze protecting my 5 stitches a kind ER doctor sent me home with.

I didn't think much about my injury until I realized I was supposed to accompany our ward's choir on 2 special musical numbers in less than 24 hours. I was actually able to play one of the songs with my other 9 fingers and even interpret 2 talks in ASL. My other big accomplishment was doing my girls' hair. I wish I had taken a picture of the back of their hair. It was gorgeous! I love seeing what I can do with their beautiful blonde tresses. It was just a bit more painful working with those teeny rubber bands that particular day. :) But totally worth it!

Christmas parties & concerts

One of my favorite things during Christmas time is the music. I got to sing with my Friends in Harmony group again. It truly is a blessing to bring the spirit of Christmas to our community (especially those who live in assisted living centers). I love singing and dancing with such talented ladies.

I love hearing my children sing, too. Evan and Emma both performed in "holiday" concerts for me. My favorite song that Evan sung was "Hot Cup of Cocoa." Darling (See video at the end of the post.) He's got quite a set of pipes on him. He also loves to sing harmony, and I could pick his voice out of the entire choir! I think we'll work on blending next. :)

At Emma's preschool, they always find ways to combine holiday lyrics into nursery rhyme tunes. It makes me smile at their creativity. This year she sang "Mary had a baby boy, baby, boy, baby boy. Mary had a baby boy on Christmas day." This was to the tune of Mary had a little lamb. I think there were 8 verses! She, too, loves to sing!

My whole family got to perform at our ward Christmas party. The theme was "Christmas around the world" and so from Tahiti, the girls and I danced a hula number with some other ladies in the ward. We had fun and did a fine job, but I am thrilled the cute little girls in the front took a lot of the attention off of us women. Steve sang an African Christmas carol in a mens quartet, who are amazing!!! The kids also sang a few songs. I love ward Christmas parties--especially when I'm not in charge!! What a relief this year!

This was our first encounter with one of Santa's helpers for the year. Everyone was excited to share their heart's desires--except for Lizzie. She said she was going to give him a hug and tell him she wanted Tinkerbell, but as soon as she saw him, she couldn't get far enough away. She must be 2 years old.

She's sure a cute 2 year old, though!

Here's Evan and his school choir singing "Hot Cup of Cocoa." (I will warn it takes a bit to "buffer.")